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1/28/2015 4:07PM

Measles Outbreak: How to Stay Healthy

State officials are working to stem the spread of a measles outbreak that began in California. Vanderbilt University’s Dr. William Schaffner discusses ways to protect your health with Sara Murray. Photo: Getty.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... California health officials are stepping up their efforts to stop the spread and the measles outbreak at the TNA de Greenlee and then has infected nearly seventy people ... now health officials are cautioning those who are vaccinated each to steer clear of crowded places like Disneyland in airports ... and when schools do find peace in the measles and their family home in any students were vaccinated here tells more about this disease and what you need to know to stay healthy is Dr William Schaffner an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University University Medical Center ... Dr thanks famous for joining us ... good to be with his her site is the first question people have right now is how widely could this brand How contagious could this be ... well first of all the measles virus is the second goal most contagious virus that we know it is written very very readily ... and indeed ... a child who's going to get measles can actually spread the virus to others for three or four days before they get sick ... that's one of the reasons it's spread so widely ... with many children coming to Disneyland ... and then going home ... if they're infected ... they could set up satellite outbreaks ... around the country ... and a little bit of that has started already so we really worried about that ... because the disease is taking place ... in children ... largely middle and middle class children ... whom the parents ... have withheld them from vaccination ... so they're susceptible ... right there on a big cause for concern ... can you read this journal is an abyss incomes that parents should be watching out for an engine of the year when people have to do to protect themselves in this situation ... both protection is easy to ... get vaccinated because the vaccine is wonderful ... it has eliminated measles over Benz parts of the world ... you'll only get it ... if you ... keep your child susceptible ... the deal is actually ... is an illness with fever ... cough ... runny nose sore throat and then a very characteristic kind of ... watching rash ... that begins on the neck and goes over the body ... if that were all the D is he wouldn't be so bad ... but it's from an illness that can really make the child's sake and complications of middle ear infection ... pneumonia ... and on occasion ... encephalitis inflammation ... of the brain ... not very nice ... before we had vaccines ... measles actually kill kill ... four hundred to five hundred children in the United States each year ... this is not ... a silly disease that pretty incredible is coming back like this so is there anything to worry about if you are vaccinated is there any situation like the stock with the flu vaccine this year reported facts and they're all these other strains that can make you think anyway ... this is a nearly perfect and see ... if vaccinated according to schedule ... you should be protected for life ... with a surety of somewhere between ninety five and ninety nine percent so there's an occasional vaccine slip up ... life is not perfect ... but other than that it's about as good as it can be ... the stopper you only eight days earlier there are some parents have chosen not to give their children the vaccine ... in some cases that have clustered in areas in a lot of them are in California where we're now seeing this happen ... you have any message to parents who chose not to vaccinate their children or maybe a parent or trying to decide whether they should vaccinate their children are not ... will my recommendation would be please ... please vaccinate your child ... the vaccine say ... it's wonderfully effective ... it will protect your child throughout their life whether they stay in the United States support travel abroad ... it's a big world out there it's full of dangers ... vaccine preventable diseases ... should be prevented because they're potentially ... very